[Anime Review] Scum’s Wish - Is Love Truly the Best Feeling?

Obsession. Addiction. Delusion. Desperation. Deception. Manipulation. These were the vices explored through the six relationships of the “scums” in this series. Welcome to my review of this controversial and polarizing series.

[Note: this was from my backlog from about two months ago. It’s a bit rougher than my current posts and mostly unchanged from my original draft but I still wanted it out there for you to read. Enjoy]

Source

Some of the most compelling dramas start with nothing more than mutual loneliness and innocent intentions. Hanabi Yasuraoka and Mugi Awaya were two teenagers that embarked on such a journey. Both of them had been longing for their current shared teachers and childhood replacements for their lost parents of the same gender. Their encounter and choice to become a fictional couple was immediately compelling for me. I’ve been in their shoes before. Maybe I’m a “scum” with them?

Webster’s Dictionary defines scum as “a low, vile, or worthless person or group of people.” Kuzu in the original Japanese title meant “trash or waste” when written as hiragana (屑) (JapanDict) but also meant “Japanese Arrowroot”, a vined plant somewhat similar to a rose (クズ) (JapanDict) (which roses play a part in the story well towards the end). I love when authors come up with fun wordplay like this.

The four other main characters took notice of their new relationship. Sanae Ebato, Hanabi’s best friend, became suspicious. Noriko Kamomebata, Hanabi’s childhood rival and Mugi’s “princess”, clung harder to him. Akane Minigawa, Mugi’s love interest, pursued Norumi Kanai, Hanabi’s love interest, instead. Narumi kept composure and pursued his own goals. Despite being very unrealistic with how these characters knew each other and fit into a complex web of interpersonal relationships, this series was a net positive for me. I’m appreciative that these stories exist.

Before I continue this review, especially if you haven’t read my B-Side over the relationship between Sanae and Hanabi, know that this series will not be for everyone. It deals with and shows multiple relationships that could be triggering for audiences that have experienced sexual assault, abuse, any form of self-harm, or psychosis. This was not a happy tale at all. It didn’t hold its punches and focused heavily on the darker sides of the human condition. A common moniker given by the community at large was “torture porn.” I can see where they’re coming from.

All images for the rest of this review are sourced from Episode 1 of the official release to avoid major spoilers.

I will start at the season finale but won’t be spoiling the major events of it. It takes courage to end a series without a happy resolution. In real life, not everyone you meet will stay in your life, not every conflict will end with you gaining closure or insight, and not every goodbye will be your last. When the ending song, “Heikousin - Sayuri,” played for the final time, the sakura bloom, sharded and crimson, kissed my cheeks, pummeling my fragility to cloud burst. It was exactly the kind of ending I wanted and needed from everything prior. I hope for no continuation now that I’ve had weeks to process.

The rest of the times that ending played, I mostly skipped them. That’s a rare occurrence for me, but as a fan of Sayuri and having listened to the album version of this track in every breath, I felt this edit was noticeably inferior. About midway through, there was a change in instrumentation where the song shifted between its two halves. There was a “wrongness” to it and it was completely distracting for me. The visuals also were not at all fascinating to me compared to several other similar endings from the same studio and staff.

The opening song, “Uso no Hibana - Kuroneko (stylized as 9neko),” along with its animation faired substantially better as it prepared me for every episode to come. It wasn’t a sad song by any means but also didn’t lie about the tone of the whole piece. Its visuals and rapid accompanying musical backdrop had such a chaotic vibrance to them while the vocal performance in both the Anime edit and full release (would recommend listening to it) conveyed the inner conflicts and longing desires of the main characters while also inviting new viewers into the dread. It also had many plot elements shown that weren’t dangerous to my experience like other openings have done over the years.

I found that the overall visual presentation was mostly pleasant with a hand drawn roughness to the line work of every character and the general designs remaining consistent. Backgrounds were richly detailed and the usage of 3D CGI was competent and composited well with the 2D assets. The only time that the 3D bothered me was when it was used for water bottles or other props that characters interacted with. They felt very out of place due to being noticeable and frequently in frame. There were also a few scenes where bloom was heavily used to mask low quality background art or static faceless characters making up crowds, but neither were bad enough to be more than a minor annoyance.

I absolutely felt the scene transitions and dynamic camera work were the stars of the presentation. There were several scenes where characters were just chatting and instead of just snapping back and forth between their faces, the animators chose to use manga panel style cutouts that slid into frame and gave a sense of motion to keep the pace up. Several aspect ratio changes and a variety of filters were applied to quickly change the mood of a scene or show off the mental and emotional states of the characters in that moment. Episode 11 was my favorite usage of it from a thematic and storytelling standpoint, almost as if every occurrence of it before was practice on the animation staff’s part so that they could perfect it there.

Mental health and emotional damage brought about through trauma often are shown as being what drives people into performing cruel acts or being outright villainous. To a degree, that was shown here with the main antagonist who frequently seemed to get sexual pleasure from the variety of diabolical acts they performed. They weren’t evil just to be evil but were very troubled and almost irredeemable. Their backstory and motives were fascinating and how their storyline ended was surprisingly satisfying for me.

I want to end this with a brief talk about the English dub. I haven’t watched much of it in the original Japanese audio but felt this dub was never too over the top and the voice actors fit their characters and situations well. Avery Smithhart is someone I haven’t heard much from, but her Hanabi felt like a real, troubled teenage girl. When she screamed at her childhood self due to its continual taunts (which was a very common occurrence throughout), I wanted to give her a hug. Her laugh was contagious and the few anxiety driven gags or moments of embarrassment felt equally human. She was a heavy part of the lighter elements and did get the majority of the screentime.

My Closing Thoughts

I haven't felt this uncomfortable in a good while but media that evokes such a feeling will always be important to me. The series will live rent free in a similar part of my soul as both O Maidens In Your Savage Season (my spoiler heavy review) and After the Rain as works of art that I want people to talk about. If you enjoyed this review, feel free to reblog, vote and comment on it. I would love to hear your thoughts on this work. Thank you for your time and have a wonderful rest of your day.

Important Info

• Adapted from a manga written and illustrated by Mengo Yokoyari
• Studio: Lerche
• Genres: Seinen, Psychological Character Drama, Love Polygon
• Seasons/Episodes: Winter 2017; 12 Episodes (Complete)
• Recommended Similar Content: Love and Lies(for the similar way it made me feel in terms of the representation of the characters and thematic ponderings; see my previous review); Welcome to the NHK (for how broken, flawed and self-destructive the main character was and having a similar finale)
• Streaming on HiDIVE (English and Japanese available)